Abortion Clinics Closing at Record Pace
On a horrible day such as this one I thought I’d start with some moderately happy news.
For Abby Johnson, the closing of a single Planned Parenthood center demonstrated her dramatic reversal from abortion clinic director to leading pro-life advocate.
But for pro-lifers throughout the United States, it marked another exhibit in a hopeful trend—abortion centers are shutting down at an unprecedented rate. The total so far this year is 44, according to a pro-life organization that tracks clinic operations.
I say it’s moderately happy for as long as one clinic remains open, we can’t truly celebrate.
A Conservative Foreign Policy Vision
Fantastic piece from Andrew McCarthy that will be the focus of my Catholic Stand post tomorrow, though from a slightly different perspective. Basically we need to find some common ground between John McCain’s knee-jerk “bomb it all” foreign policy and the Paulite “Blame America first” isolationist wing.
On a day when people tried valiantly to score political points off of murdered human beings, here’s another story where a brutal murder was used as a political football – only the narrative proved false.
The Myth of Live and Let Live Liberalism
Another National Review writer knocks one out.
Social liberalism is the foremost, predominant, and in many instances sole impulse for zealous regulation in this country, particularly in big cities. I love it when liberals complain about a ridiculous bit of PC nanny-statism coming out of New York, L.A., Chicago, D.C., Seattle, etc. — “What will they do next?”
Uh, sorry to tell you, but you are “they.” Outside of a Law and Order script — or an equally implausible MSNBC diatribe about who ruined Detroit — conservatives have as much influence on big-city liberalism as the Knights of Malta do.
Seriously, who else do people think are behind efforts to ban big sodas or sue hairdressers for charging women more than men? Who harasses little kids for making toy guns out of sticks, Pop Tarts, or their own fingers? Who wants to regulate the air you breathe, the food you eat, and the beverages you drink? Who wants to control your thermostat? Take your guns? Your cigarettes? Heck, your candy cigarettes? Who’s in favor of speech codes on campuses and “hate crime” laws everywhere? Who’s in favor of free speech when it comes to taxpayer-subsidized “art” and pornography (so long as you use a condom, if liberals get their way) but then bang their spoons on their high chairs for strict regulations when it comes to political speech? Who loves meddling, finger-wagging billionaires like Michael Bloomberg when they use state power and taxpayer money to herd, bully, and nudge people but thinks billionaires like the Koch brothers who want to shrink government are the root of all tyranny?
I’m always amused by liberals and libertarians accusing social conservatives of being for big government on social issues when it is the left that is so desperately eager to involve the government in all aspects of our daily lives.
A very cool and useful chart – if you can read it.
Foreign Parenting Practices Americans Would Call Neglect
Personally I find number three intriguing. It might be too late for our first two, but with a third due any minute, we’ll need to get our whistles ready.
Brother Zummo, when you reference “the Paulite ‘Blame America first’ isolationist wing” of the GOP, I assume you are primarily referring to Ron rather than Rand. It seems to me that Rand, while starting with a hearty skepticism of the Wilsonian interventionism that marks the McQueeg-Grahamnesty wing, shows little, if any, of the BAF isolationism that is the target of your slogan.
the Paulite “Blame America first” isolationist wing
Is not a very fair description. It seems people are incapable of making the distinction, not even subtle, between an explaining why something may have occurred and placing moral blame on the person who caused it.
A man or woman may commit adultery or fornication because they found another person attractive (explanation). The man or woman still has moral culpability for the act (blame). Ron Paul offered explanations for why the US may be the target of terrorism. He did not “blame America first” nor relieve the perpetrators of blame for their acts.
Samuel,
Thus far Rand has not been quite as knee-jerk as his father, and he seems to have taken active measures to distance himself from his father’s foreign policy.
“Ron Paul offered explanations for why the US may be the target of terrorism.”
Which indicated that he was completely clueless. In Ron Paul land the terrorists hate us because of nefarious deeds by the US and Israel. If the US would simply stay out of the Middle East, and if those troublesome Jews would simply go quietly into the ovens again, all would be well with the world. Ron Paul does not give any evidence of comprehending that the jihadists are first and foremost engaged in a power struggle against more secular forces in the Middle East, and that attacking the US and Israel is a tactic to gain street cred in that struggle.
c matt your explanation is a good one but does not go deep enough. “A man or woman may commit adultery or fornication because they found another person attractive (explanation). is a no-fault explanation, it is no one’s fault, blame the attractiveness of the other person. On the other hand. Paul’s explanation is not a no fault explanation, but one loaded with fault finding here on our side.